Android Q Beta 2 Released With Notification ‘Bubbles’

Last month when the Android Q developer preview was launched, it was discovered that Google could be considering introducing a new feature for managing notifications in the form of chat heads. For those who are unfamiliar, Facebook kind of introduced the concept of chat heads which are floating icons on the home screen that users can tap on to quickly chat with their friends.

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One of the upsides to this feature is that these chat heads are constantly there and are on top of existing apps, saving users the time from having to switch apps back and forth. Now it looks like the feature has been confirmed in the second beta of Android Q. In Google’s Android Developers blog, the company announced the new feature which they are calling “bubbles”.

From what we can tell, it sounds like the feature will work pretty much the same way as chat heads, except that this will work across more apps and notifications. According to Google, “Bubbles are great for messaging because they let users keep important conversations within easy reach. They also provide a convenient view over ongoing tasks and updates, like phone calls or arrival times. They can provide quick access to portable UI like notes or translations, and can be visual reminders of tasks too.”

It looks like it could be an interesting and more convenient way of dealing with notifications, although we imagine that some users might not appreciate having these bubbles floating around on their home screen all the time. In any case, Android Q is still very much in its beta so for all we know, the feature might not make the final cut.